Friday, August 31, 2012

Stone: Romney Snub of Ron Paul Supporters Was Dumb

Master political operative Roger Stone has put on paper what I have been thinking: It makes no sense to snub Ron Paul supporters before the election. Doesn't Romney need as many Paulian votes as he can get?

Here's Stone, and do note his analysis of Rand Paul's dive into the belly of the beast:

"Politics is the art of inclusion" said former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean. The Romney campaign seems to have forgotten this wise advice. Although, I am certainly a practitioner of hardball politics,the Romney treatment of Congressman Ron Paul at the Republican National Convention strikes me as gratuitous, unnecessary and perhaps fatal in terms of Romney's November prospects.

Although, Congressman Paul won at least 131 delegates through the primary and caucus process, the Secretary of the Republican convention refused to acknowledge, tally or announce Paul's votes. I cannot imagine the reason for this incredible snub.

When Congressman Paul's supporters gathered the majority of delegates in five states necessary to put Paul's name in nomination, the Romney forces quickly amended the rules to require a majority of eight states for that purpose. With Romney having secured more then enough delegates to be nominated it is difficult to understand what harm would have been done if Ron Paul's name had been placed in nomination and his duly elected delegates had been tallied and announced in the balloting.

All of this is particularly vexing in view of Ron Paul's studied neutrality in the November elections and not-too-bright Senator Rand Paul's transparent, self-serving endorsement of Mitt Romney.Rand Paul keeps calling the pro-War, pro-interventionist GOP platform " very libertarian." It isn't . Wake up Senator, Romney is itching to bomb Iran,backs the war in Afghanistan, supports the federal "war on drugs, the Patriot act and won't abolish the Federal Reserve.

Mitt Romney and his handlers have essentially told the Liberty Wing of the Republican Party to drop dead.

11 comments:

I really can't believe how moronic it was for the GOP to disenfranchise Paul supporters.

They could have played the convention game the old way and done some horsetrading to try to fill their "big tent". Instead, they acted the part of school yard bully and alienated them...and short of it being an "ego" or "personality" thing I can see no logic what so ever in them doing so. What a huge blunder. They probably just cost themselves the election.

It's funny that they call the Paulians "juvenile"...It's like they have ZERO self awareness. I'm not sure if you're a Ron Paul delegate how you don't laugh when they hurl that insult at you.

The "Paulians" stand for freedom, liberty, limited government, sound money and number of other things that are not part of the plans of the neo-conservative jerks that run the Republican party. In short, the party (because of who controls it) is not interested in any of those things since they get in the way of their own Big Statist, Big (and permamnent) War-making dreams.

When you understand this you understand the power play. It is the "Establishment" Republicans-in-Charge telling those of us who care about things like sound money to Screw Off. They have the reins of power and are not interested in our "petty concerns".

If the public-at-large could only understand the definition of madness (doing the same things over and over and over and over and expecting a different result) perhaps we could make some real progress. We've voted for Democrats and Republicans since the Civil War and all we've gotten for it is worthless money, intrusive government, disappearing liberty and so on.

The current Republicans-in-charge will pay for their deeds. I believe that they have lit some fires under a great many asses and the backlash will come. I just hope there is enough time.

Love this site. Though I'd heard of Roger Stone spottily and on occasion in election cycles over the years, never read anything by him or on him until your posts of his work this and late last year. Man, he's fun to read! Love his indictment of Rand Paul. Thank you for your terrific efforts!

Another intresting thing is that they got caught on video cheating in order to do it. The rules change that kept Paul from getting nominated was passed by voice vote. Video caught a teleprompter telling those at the microphone what to say. And the statement that "the 'ayes' have it" scrolled onto the screen WHILE THE VOICE VOTE WAS TAKING PLACE. The leadership had already determined the rules would pass, REGARDLESS of how the delegates voted.http://goo.gl/fb/iiU1h

Romney might have some ability in the business world, but politically he is an idiot. Romney had every opportunity to reach out to Ron Paul supporters. Instead, since securing the nomination, he is just using these strong-arm tactics against Ron Paul supporters to muzzle any expression of dissent. Ron Paul supporters leave Tampa with loads of animosity which would not have occurred had Romney shown a modicum of grace at his coronation.

Ideologically or practically speaking there is no real case for Ron Paul supporters to support Romney, and I say this as one who believes the long term future of the libertarian movement lies in the Republican party (because the system is totally rigged against third parties). Myself, I am supporting Gary Johnson, but I think even Obama is better than Romney. Yeah, you have Obamacare, but Romney wants to spend even more on a military buildup (something like 2.1 trillion), and I think the likelihood of a war with Iran or Syria is much greater with Romney than it is with Obama.

I personally believe that the "game" has been all along to divide the ranks and the country. If we are all fighting/disecting views among ourselves then we are not paying enough attention to what else is going on behind the scenes. It is all theater for the masses and the goal all along was to elect O by making us all "beleive" Romney was a serious candidate. Ron Paul just by running for Prez threatened to make that obvious to the masses.

O after all, has made the most progress at abolishing all liberties, freedoms, etc. Romney and co may want to do the same, but Romney and Repugs will have to face the masses if they start really going after our bank accounts, 401(k)s and arresting us all under the Patriot Act, etc. They have to appear to be on our side and fighting for us all and then cave in at the last minute due to to much pressure. That is easier to explain away to the masses.

In addition, who among us believes there will not be rampant fraud for this prez election? O is hardly working at campaigning and neither is Romney. They already know who the winner will be in November.

I agree with Stone on this point. In fact, I used exactly the same word on this site a few days ago. But scroll down a little, and you will find Stone bashing Ron Paul and his supporters once again. Seems he doesn't like the fact that Ron Paul hasn't endorsed Gary Johnson, and Paul supporters don't seem to be falling in line behind Johnson the way Stone would like.

Now I happen to agree with Stone that it would be logical for Paul supporters to turn to Johnson. He is, at worst, the far, far lesser of evils compared to the major candidates. But I'm puzzled as to why Stone can't seem to figure out that Johnson's choice of a historic Paul basher as his campaign chairman might have something to do with or that further bashing of Paul and his supporters is somehow a solution to the problem. With friends like Stone, Johnson has no need of enemies.

He is wrong. Romney did not do anything without the consultation with the Ron Paul's campaign. Everything bear a stamp of approval of Ron Paul. This preventing of the Paul supporters to nominate him from the floor was not some independent attack by the Romney campaign, but a coordinated action by the Romney and Paul campaigns together. Remember Jesse Benton saying to the media a few days ago that "Dr Paul did not want to be nominated from the floor". So, we should now be angry at Romney campaign for not respecting the Paul supporters more than he himself respects them?

There is no real competitive election taking place in November. The decision has already been made, Obama, four more years. Remember, "if elections mattered they would be illegal". This charade, this political theater is to give the illusion that Amerika is a democracy, not as if that's a good thing. R&R, Romney and Ryan are merely well paid actors following a script. Ron Paul wasn't following the globalist's script so he had to be nullified. Ron's a patriot that thinks nationalistic and the money running the show doesn't like any form of independence. Everyone must bow to the money or else nullification is necessary. Sometimes with a big Paul Wellstone "N".